Rose sat in the library reading up on her Elf charms for potions when she felt someone sit down beside her. She knew exactly who it was just by the way he walked. Not even bothering to look up from her reading, she asked, “What do you want, Ben?”

“Can’t a guy just talk to a girl?” Ben asked with a sly smile on his face.

Taking a breath, she put a polite smile on her face and said in a sweet tone, “Yes, Ben, a guy can talk to a girl.”

Getting a large smile on his face, he took a seat on the table and almost knocked over Rose’s ink bottle. “Sorry,” he muttered.

Rose was growing annoyed with Ben, but she made a point to remain polite to him, and if he happened to corner her somewhere, she would actually talk to him even though she had no desire to. Composing herself, she shook off the almost accident. “It’s alright. What did you want to talk to me about?” she asked, already knowing the answer.

Looking down at Rose, Ben almost felt weak. The way she smiled at him made his stomach want to do flips. Taking a deep breath he answered, “Nothing in particular.” He continued nervously, “Just curious as to how you are. I haven’t spoken to you in a while.” He gave a weak smile.

Understanding that this was going to take longer than she had hoped, Rose dropped her quill. “I’m doing good, just working on some school work.”

“Oh that’s interesting,” he said to her while glancing away.

There was an awkwardness Rose wished to extinguish. Looking around, she asked nicely, “How are you doing?”

***

Scorpius stood at the end of a book shelf watching Rose and Ben talk. He couldn’t help but get angry at the way Ben would playfully joke with Rose or occasionally touch her hand, especially when Rose made a point of pulling away from him.

Scorpius understood why Ben was still fawning over Rose. Once she got in someone’s head, they couldn’t get rid of her. Scorpius couldn’t help but admit that recently he had felt more than friendship for her, but he was making sure to hide it.

Still staring at her, he watched how she would fidget awkwardly in her seat whenever Ben tried to move closer to her. She was unbearably adorable when she did that. Stop it! These are things that you aren’t supposed to think about. Ever.

Taking a deep breath, he remained still. Whenever he allowed himself to lose control and think about Rose, it took him a second to recompose himself. Scorpius couldn’t figure out where these feelings had come from, but he could pinpoint when his feelings started to change. It was in the woods when Rose had finally been honest with him.

The way she looked when she was being true to herself almost made his heart melt. He had felt things for Rose in the past—mainly in fifth year—but all of those feelings were easy to push away. He didn’t know why, but this time they were so much stronger and more powerful than ones he had ever had before, and they were almost impossible to fight off. When he was in fifth year, he would occasionally think about their friendship, but there was never as much emotion, and he could control when he thought about her, but now… now everything was different.

Scorpius had real feelings for Rose that had erupted. They had probably been growing inside of him for a year and a half. He couldn’t help but day dream about her: hugging her and kissing her and touching her in intimate places. He just wanted to be with her all the time.

Shaking his head of his thoughts, Scorpius reminded himself there was a time and a place for these thoughts, and this wasn’t it. Looking around, he saw Rose look straight at him and give him a pleading look.

Smiling to himself, he picked up his potions book he had laid on a shelf and walked over to where Rose was awkwardly sitting and talking to Ben. “I’m sorry I’m late,” he said, standing near Rose whose eyes grew very wide and perky.

Ben looked up from Rose; his face had changed from goo-goo eyes to a look of annoyance and disgust.

“Oh, that’s okay,” Rose said, playing along.

“Is there something going on here?” Ben asked while inching closer to Rose and narrowing his eyes at Scorpius.

Scorpius waved the book in his hand in the air. “Just working on our potions paper.”

Ben scooted a little bit closer to Rose which made her want to scream. Scorpius could see the pain in her face and almost laughed. Ben lightly laid his hand on Rose’s shoulder.

Rose didn’t know how to respond to the gesture. She actually wanted to slap Ben’s hand, but the library was full of people, and she didn’t want to be insensitive. So just letting it lay there, she looked at Scorpius and mouthed, “Help me.”

Thinking quickly, Scorpius said in a snarky tone, “So are we going to do the project or not, Weasley, because I do have Quidditch practice in a couple of hours, and I would appreciate it if we could get this done.”

“Yes we are,” she turned to Ben and continued, “How about we finish this conversation later, Ben, we really do need to get some of this paper done.”

Ben nodded his head and stood up slowly. He looked a little disappointed at Rose’s request. After waiting a minute to see if Rose would change her mind and ask him to stay, Ben starting walking and purposely shoved Scorpius as he passed him.

Scorpius just stared at Ben. “Is he always like that?” he asked Rose while throwing his potions book on the table and taking a seat across from her.

“Worse,” Rose said, smiling at Scorpius. “Thanks for the rescue.”

“No problem,” Scorpius smiled back, grabbing the piece of paper in front of her to see what part of the essay she was at. “What was going on there?” he asked casually.

Looking at Scorpius, she raised an eyebrow, “What,” Scorpius smiled and laughed, leaning back into his seat and sliding the parchment back to Rose. “If I’m going to be saving your arse, I think I have a right to know what I’m saving it from.”

Biting her lip, she tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. “Well if you must know, he came by to talk to me.”

“Well that was a little less than obvious,” Scorpius said sarcastically.

Rose laughed and answered, “He had to have been looking for me. I don’t think Ben has come to the library once in six years, and no one ever comes back to this part of the library except you and me.”

“True,” Scorpius said, nodding his head. “So he finally cornered you?” he asked while reading the titles of the books on the shelf beside him.

“Yup,” Rose said, taking a deep breath. “He just can’t take a hint. He came over here for a different reason than to ask me mundane questions. I could read it in his eyes.”

He turned his eyes back to Rose. He wanted to tell her how gorgeous she was, but he decided against it and said, “What does he expect to happen? One day you will just jump into his arms and say sorry for breaking up with him, and that you will never do it again?”

“Pretty much,” Rose said, shaking her head. “I just wish this would be easier. I thought the hard part would be breaking up with him, but no he makes it so difficult.”

“Well, can you really blame him for wanting you back? I mean look at you, you’re stunning,” Scorpius said too quickly. Rose’s face got really red, and she looked away. Quickly trying to cover up what he said, Scorpius’s added, “I mean that purely as a friend.”

“Oh, of course,” Rose said, looking away from him.

They sat in awkward silence for a minute. Even though it was completely true, Scorpius hadn’t meant to let that slip out: it just happened. Thinking through what he was going to say next, he said, “You know, eventually you are going to have to tell him you two have no chance of ever getting back together.”

“I know I will,” Rose said, putting her hand to her forehead. “I keep dropping hints, but he just doesn’t see them.”

“I don’t think it’s because he doesn’t see them; I think doesn’t want to see them. You’re going to have to flat out tell him it’s over. Rip it off like a band-aid.”

“But isn’t that a little insensitive?” Rose asked.

He looked at Rose. The way her hair fell down her back and how the lighting of the library made her eyes sparkle and how her smile was so beautiful with her perfect lips, Scorpius just wanted to crawl across the table, push her against the book shelves, and kiss those beautiful lips fiercely. “Not at all,” he said weakly, shocked his imagination could have gone so wild with her sitting in front of him.

“But I don’t want to hurt him any more than I already have,” she said sympathetically.

Leaning across the table, Scorpius grabbed Rose’s hand and gave it a squeeze. “You will be hurting him more by dragging him along like that. He could go his whole life hoping you might give him a chance when really you never will.” He looked at Rose’s eyes. “My best advice would be to do it sooner rather than later.”

Rose nodded her head, “You’re a good friend. You know that?” she said while giving Scorpius a huge smile. “You are the only friend I have that actually cares about what I feel.”

“What does that mean?” Scorpius asked, biting his lip.

Looking down at her paper, she said, “Well, all my other friends are either mad at me about breaking up with Ben, or they keep trying to talk me into getting back with him. None of them actually considered the fact I don’t like him and wasn’t that happy with him.” Looking back up at Scorpius, she smiled, “You’re the only person that has actually tried to help me.”

“Well, in my defense, I’m not friends with Ben so…” Scorpius said, hoping to hide the fact that he was blushing.

“Well, regardless of the reason, you have been a very good friend,” Rose said, giving his hand a tight squeeze and then letting go.

Smiling at her, he said, “Glad to be of service.”

“Thanks,” she muttered sarcastically.

Laughing at her response, Scorpius looked down to his watch, and a wave of sadness fell over him when he saw what time it was. He looked up at her and said, “As much fun as this has been, I really do have Quidditch practice, so I better get going.”

Nodding her head, she replied, “Ok. I guess I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Yeah,” was all he could say back, seeing as how he couldn’t help but stare at her and think about how pretty she was.

Scorpius stood up; he began to walk away when Rose called out, “Scorpius, what were you doing back here anyway?”

Quickly thinking of reason, he lied, “Oh, I came back here looking for a book I wanted to read.”

“Oh well did you get it?” Rose asked.

Pulling a book off of the shelf, he said, “I have now.”

Smiling at his awkward behavior, Rose replied, “Alright then.”

The second he walked out of the library, Scorpius began to bang his head and say to himself, “Stupid, stupid, stupid.”

That was until he heard a girl’s voice say, “Scorpius.”

Turning around, he saw Rose standing in the hallway with a book in her hand. Turning beet red, he said, “Yes?”

“You left your potions book on the table.”

“Oh, I did, didn’t I,” Scorpius said while quickly rushing over to take the book from her.

Scorpius could feel his stomach drop and his hands start to sweat. “I suppose I might have been acting different,” he said shakily.

Rose crinkled her nose. “Well cut it out because you’re starting to freak me out a bit.”

With an awkward grin on his face, he wiped a small pearl of sweat from his face before Rose could notice and said, “I’ll work on that.”

Giving him another weird look, she shook her head and said slowly, “You do that.” Then she turned around and went back inside the library.

Taking a relieved breath after she left, Scorpius shook his head and said to himself, “That was close.”

***

Rose was sitting at her potion station and attempting to focus on her assignment, but she was finding it extremely hard. So deciding to solve the problem, she looked up from her book at Scorpius and said in an annoyed tone, “What are you staring at?”

Quickly returning his eyes back down to his book, he answered, “I thought I saw a bug in your hair.”

Rose nodded and said, “Well, is it still there?”

“No: it flew away,” Scorpius said without looking up from his book.

“Ok,” Rose said as she looked back at her book.

After a few seconds, he couldn’t control himself and looked up at her again.

Rose could feel his eyes on her, and her patience was starting to wear thin. Putting her quill down, she looked back up at Scorpius. “Is it back?”

“Is what back?” he said confusedly.

“The bug,” she replied sarcastically.

“What bug?”

“Oh, Merlin.” Snapping her fingers to get Scorpius’s full attention, she said in a strict voice, “Whatever funk you’re in, you need to snap out of it. We have a project due.”

He shook his head and said, “Sorry,” but he couldn’t help it. It was as if his subconscious was taking over.

Rose went back to scribbling on piece of parchment; she hoped he was actually paying attention now.

Making a point to stare at his book, he asked, “So are you going to the Quidditch game this weekend?”

Almost laughing, Rose looked at Scorpius. “Do I look like someone who wants to go watch Quidditch?”

“No, but I thought I’d ask since it’s the first game of the season.” Then he actually picked up a quill and underlined something in his text book.

Rose had completely forgotten it was the opening game. After thinking about it, she finally asked, “Who’s playing?”

“Gryffindor and Slytherin,” he said, looking up from his book.

Rose was staring at him and tapping her quill on the table when she said, “Implying that you’re going to be there.”

“Well I am captain.” Scorpius said without taking his eyes off her.

Reaching up and scratching a place on her neck, Rose asked, “Do you want me to be there?”

Caught off guard by the question, Scorpius just looked at her. “If I say yes, will you come?”

She put her quill down and crossed her arms. “I might,” she said while raising her eyebrows. “So do you want me there?” she asked again.

“Well, friends generally do support each other,” Scorpius said while underlining something else in his book.

“Ok, then I’ll come,” Rose said, looking back down toward her book.

“Well you don’t have to,” Scorpius remarked off-handedly.

Raising her eyebrows, she asked, “So you don’t want me to come now?”

“No, I want you to come,” he said quickly.

“Alright then I’m coming.”

Scorpius’s heart sped up. She was actually going to come. “I might add that if you hate it, you can sit there and make fun of it the whole time. I know you love doing that.”

Rose smiled and shook her head. “Get back to work you prat.”

He laughed and looked back down at his book.

Not long after, the bell rang and the class was released.

Getting up, they both walked out the room and went their separate ways.

Scorpius saw Vivian and Bryan waiting for him as usual. He walked over to them, but as they were about to head for lunch, Rose called out, “Scorpius.”

He turned around and saw her rushing towards him.

Vivian made no effort to hide her opinion of Rose, but Bryan smiled politely.

Scorpius looked back to them and said, “This should only take a minute. You go ahead and head to lunch.”

Bryan started to walk away, but Vivian stayed still and crossed her arms, watching as Scorpius walked away from her and toward Rose.

It took Bryan a minute to realize Vivian wasn’t beside him, but then he went back to her and said, “What the hell are you looking at?”

Nodding her head toward Scorpius and Rose, she didn’t say a word. Bryan looked as Scorpius reached into his bag and pulled out a stack of papers, handing them over to Rose. She made a comment and he laughed and moved a step closer to her.

Narrowing her eyes, she said through gritted teeth, “That is not nothing. Look at how he’s acting. That is not two people who are just lab partners look.”

Looking back at Scorpius, Bryan saw the way he was smiling at Rose. Taking a deep breath, he moved in front of Vivian so he was facing her and said, “Vivian, he likes you, you know he does, so you have nothing to worry about.”

“Still, whatever is going on between them, I don’t like it,” Vivian said. Looking past Bryan, she saw Scorpius walking back toward them.

“Sorry about that. I forgot to give her some notes for our assignment,” Scorpius said while tugging his bag up onto his shoulder.

“Whatever, mate, let’s just get to lunch. I’m hungry,” Bryan said as he started to walk toward the great hall.

Vivian held out her hand, waiting for Scorpius to take it. Only he didn’t, he just turned around and walked off with Bryan as if he didn’t even notice it. Releasing a huff of breath, Vivian could feel Scorpius was pulling away from her. Closing her eyes, she wanted to cry, but instead she gathered her strength and followed Bryan and Scorpius.

A/N: So I hope you like this chapter and I am so happy that Scorpius is finally admitting that he actually likes Rose. They are so close to getting together. Just a couple more chapters. So please review and tell me what you think I do love feedback. And I am so happy about all the lovely reviews that people have left me thank you so much. Chapter 16 is already written and will be posted soon.